


The Nightmare

by Canadiantardis



Series: Altean!Pidge [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Pidge | Katie Holt, But blink and you miss you, Dreams and Nightmares, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Hurt/Comfort, Memories, One Shot, Past Character Death, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Theres a hint of another relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-08 06:03:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16423799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canadiantardis/pseuds/Canadiantardis
Summary: Plance Hallo-week Day 1: Death





	The Nightmare

Katie had gone to sleep early, mostly because of her cousin and Coran taking away her ability to use her laptop. It had been a stressful day, and she was practically shivering as she laid on the bed much too large for one person.

Still, she was able to fall asleep rather quickly, exhaustion allowing her the reprieve and she could almost call it a mercy.

Her dreams had always been weird since escaping the Galra the first time. She was never certain if she was going to have a dreamless sleep, a pleasant dream, or a nightmare. Often it was a combination of the last two, as were the case that night.

_Katie was back on Altea, playing with children her age even in her flowy, thick dress made for parties. She laughed with them, offering to help braid some of their hair if they wanted. She was proud to know how to make those intricate styles older Alteans wore, and puffed up in pride after one young boy offered his head as an example for the others._

_Soon, she was braiding child after child’s hair in various ways, in a therapeutic way. The other children continued to laugh and play, and the Alteans getting their hair done chatted with her about nothing in particular. The oldest was only 9 deca-phoebs, just a deca-phoeb under her. Something about that knowledge couldn’t sit right in Katie’s guts, even as she pushed it down._

_Blonde hair suddenly turned the lightest blue before it pulled away from her hands, the sky darkening to a dark violet. The laughing and happy noises around her quickly turned to shrieks, high-pitched pleas for mercy._

_Confused, Katie looked up to see she was no longer on Altea, but in a dark ship, her arms held back as she tried running forward. Colourful heads fell one after the other, and she couldn’t understand what she was seeing until a pale blue head turned towards her, hands reaching for her, and deep purple eyes pierced her very being._

_“Please, your Highness! Stop them!” He wasn’t someone she knew. His voice cracked in terror, high over the sounds of blasters. “I don’t want to d-!”_

_His words were cut off as a blaster aimed at his chest, and a rough hole the side of both her fists put together appeared, and Katie could only scream, begging for the monsters to stop. Tears blurred her vision, and her young voice broke the same moment she did._

_“Stop it! Stop it! Let us go!” She shrieked, seeing her brother ahead of her strangely quiet, his head down in defeat, and only then did she stop protesting, fat tears choking her._

_“Katie…! Katie!” A disembodied voice called to her, distorting the world around her until…_

… Katie bolted up, her forehead bashing into another person’s nose and they both shouted in pain.

“Agh!” The voice cried, falling off the bed to lay on the floor, grabbing their nose. “Katie!”

Said Altean was heaving in lungfuls of air, tears streaming down her cheeks and she knew she’s speaking gibberish, making no sense in any language, but she was so confused and scared and can still _see those deep purple eyes begging to save him._

She felt arms envelope her, a chest to press her tear-stained cheek again, and a low voice speaking to her soothingly.

“You’re okay. It’s in the past. Nothing’s going to hurt you, my darling.” The words were soft, intimate, and Katie grabbed onto the words like a lifeline, struggling to put dream and reality apart. “You’re safe. You’re safe.”

She could feel how her shaking was moving her comforter before she can recognize him. Warm body, sky-blue pajamas that match her grass-green ones, dark skin in the places she can see through tear-blurred eyes. It doesn’t take long after she can recognize his clothes that she understood she was no longer 10 deca-phoebs and had not been 10 for a long time. She was no longer the Princess prisoner-of-war, but the Green Paladin of Voltron, and the alien hugging her was her beloved Lance, the lanky human who had once been the Blue Paladin before becoming the Red Paladin. They had been dating for some time, doing an odd mix-match of Altean and Earthling dating rituals that seemed to work for her cousin, brother and their mutual lover.

Once she figured out who it was holding her close, Katie melted, the sobs becoming a bit softer. Lance doesn’t seem to mind she hadn’t started speaking yet, a hand combing through her hair and gently untangling some knots.

“It was just a nightmare. You’re okay. Everything is okay.” Lance murmured.

“But… It hadn’t been a night- _hic_ -nightmare.” Katie sniffled. “It was… The destruction of Altea again.”

The most recurring nightmare she had. By now, all the Paladins had nightmares of regretful memories, although the young Altean knew she and Shiro seemed to have the worst. They had both been prisoners to the Galra for a long time, actively living a nightmare – Matt could not count in this regard as he had been saved while cryo-frozen – and they had scars, both mental and physical.

“It’s in the past, Katie.” Lance kept his voice even as the two pulled away to see the other’s face. Katie gazed at Lance’s open concern, his eyes searching hers before wiping her tears away with a gentle thumb. “You couldn’t have been able to do anything. All those who died then, will be at peace knowing that the torment is finally over. Remember? It’s what Allura and Coran always say.”

“That doesn’t make it easier to bear.” Katie whispered, looking down as a hand went to her chest. Where the child had been murdered before her very eyes. “Ten thousand years is too long to live in torment, longer considering how long it took us to truly bring peace to the universes.”

“It’s better it finally happened then to have lost after everything. We’ve avenged everyone who died. Your parents, your planet, everyone who had been affected by Zarkon and the Galra.” Lance took her chin and gently pulled her to look at him. “It was never going to be easy to hold all that trauma, but remember that things aren’t what they were when you were a child.”

Katie tilted her head up, and she chastely pressed her lips on Lance’s, a silent thank-you passing between them. When she pulled away, she wiped her eyes and gave her love a watery smile.

“Want to watch a sappy human cartoon?” Lance questioned, returning the smile at her nod before he pulled away completely to set up the movie. “Something we’ve seen before or one from the list?”

“Seen before.”

“Good choice.” Lance clicked his tongue as he turned to face her briefly for a wink before getting back to work.

In no time at all, the movie was playing and Lance was wrapping himself around Katie comfortably. She had no idea what the title was, it was an old one even by Lance’s standards, from a place on Earth called Japan – apparently where Shiro descended from – where two young girls meet a giant creature who can control nature. It was a nice movie, calming and allowed the Altean to fall asleep to childish laughter, and Lance’s soft snorts.

This time she was blessed with neither dreams nor nightmares, simply wrapped in warmth and the knowledge she was safe.

**Author's Note:**

> I made this fairly vague as to when it'll happen because I'm not sure when this would take place in Connections.  
> This idea came only very recently, because when I was originally planning, I wasn't even gunna be doing my Altean!Pidge au. Be happy for this, because I was gunna kill Lance in my original idea, aha.


End file.
